An Introduction to New Objectivity

New Objectivity, a period of extreme realism in Germanic art, sought to establish that everything that glittered is not gold. This movement, characterized by ultra veristic paintings as well as photography, was a force apparent after WWI, and artists such as George Grosz, August Sander, and Max Beckmann worked extensively in this genre. Art from this movement manifested the gritty and grimy truth behind nightlife, as well as representing individuals that are not idealized. While these works were varied in terms of subject matter, such as war veterans, the new woman, and individuals, they all relate by the mere fact that they represented social norms in Germany at the time. There is no doubt that World War I was a catalyst for the move towards New Objectivity. Artists enthusiastically signed up to go to war, in a time of romanticism and nationalism, not knowing the horrors of the trenches that awaited them. The new technology of warfare (machine guns, tanks, and grenades, among other things) caused horrible body mutilations and many more deaths, especially on the German side, as they eventually lost the war. As soldiers returned to Germany with lost limbs and battered psyches, artists returned with these new, horrific visions on the forefront of their minds. The artists’ work became their vehicle for what they viewed at war, as well as their opinions about war and its consequences. Otto Dix wanted to “show the world in all its ugliness, sickness and hypocrisy” and, consequently, his scenes of war became so gruesome that they had to be shown behind a curtain.[1] In the painting The Trench, stacks of decaying bodies form the trenches. Although this depiction seems exaggerated, Dix wanted to show the true evils of war. In terms of the aftermath of war, Dix depicted war veterans trying to assimilate back into society. He sketched and painted veterans playing cards with no hands or arms, veterans hobbling with no feet past a shoe shop, and a veteran with no eye, sharing qualities of a taxidermy fox. These ironic scenes filled with dark humor show how jarring civilian life was for these veterans and how insensitive the general public was to their needs. The artist George Grosz went further to show the realities of society after war, by typecasting war veterans and cripples, among other “characters” that he created. Many of his scenes that include war veterans remind one of political cartoons of the present. He used this social satire to not only show the reality of war veterans as the margins of society, but also to show his strong aversion to Germans and German policy. Because the formation of New Objectivity was directly related to the horrific warfare of WWI (both from the artists’ experiences and the state of society afterwards) war and war veterans were reoccurring themes. Some artists attempted to express what they had seen at war to the viewer, while others used the war veteran in their social commentary. Either way, the artists of New Objectivity returned to a style that was able to confront the viewer with the reality of an “ugly” Germany.[2] In order to typify personalities within Weimar culture, many New Objectivity artists became preoccupied with portraiture. This renaissance of the portrait within the movement is quite different from those elegant and romanticized portraits painted by Impressionists even into this period of the Weimar Republic.[3] There is an absence of flattery and likeness in New Objectivity portraiture. In their place is an abscess of social criticism, often brutal exaggeration of features, and unusual perspectives. Portraiture becomes the means not to portray the rich and wealthy, but to portray body images on the fringes of society – the prostitute, the war cripple, the destitute – as well as the controversial gender roles many were grappling with at this time. Moreover, in this climate of purposeful anti-Romanticism, most portraits could be further generalized as unveiling and making light of the basest sexual instincts of human nature. This seemingly unholy exposition does not result in mere caricatures, but disturbingly familiar faces of the Weimar Republic.[4] Most of the resulting portraits are reflective of the sexual liberation provided in the anonymity of the metropolis, and the unconventional societal norms thus developing. As contemporary journalist Carl Einstein suggests, these artists “…Grosz, Dix, and [Rudolf] Schlicter, demolish the real with pithy objectivity, unmask this era, and force it into self-irony.”[5] Meticulously painting the familiar, the recognizable characters of city life, artists also often portrayed themselves in different roles. There is an element of imaginative play and the ability of the artist to conceive a fantasy that is central to many self-portraits. Thus one can see the progression of and identification with societal norms as artists such as Otto Dix, Christian Schad, and George Grosz work through portraiture. Photography in the New Objectivity style sharply and objectively portrayed the honest truth of the state of German society in the early twentieth century. As a means of art, photography was just being established; so artists like August Sander and Albert Renger-Patzsch were pioneers in their fields. Yet these two artists did not treat photography as just a form of art. Instead, they used it to look at society from a totally new and different viewpoint. August Sander beautifully portrayed the German people in his publishings, which captured seven different aspects of German society: farmers, tradesman, women, professions, artists, city dwellers, and the “Last People,” which encompassed the homeless and war veterans.[6] Through these photos, Sander documented the changing German society from an agricultural state to an industrialized nation. This project was Sander’s attempt to systemize the German people in a time period when everything was changing. Although a totally different type of photographer, Albert Renger-Patzsch also documented the altered German society through his fascination with the “essence of the object.”[7] Most of Renger-Patzsch’s photos were of common objects found outside, in a home, or in a city. Renger-Patzsch showed many different aspects of Germany society by showing the beauty in nature or the dynamism of technology. Both artists typified their work by grouping objects or people together based upon a similarity. In this vein, Sander and Renger-Patzsch showed the variability of German society found in the new industrialized cities or in the agricultural towns of the chaotic post war country. A palpable trope within the context of New Objectivity is the anxiety of gender roles in a post-war Germany. Women were an increasingly visible faction of German society newly outside of their previous domestic roles, and were all at once workers, wives, consumers, and sex-workers.[8] The new public role of women brought about the identity of the “New Woman,” which included the white-collar worker and the assembly line laborer in addition to many other new roles.[9] This role as the “New Women” is explored in the works of two female artists of the New Objectivity movement, Jeanne Mammen, who typified the role as the “New Woman” both in her biographical history, and in the work that she portrayed,[10] and Kate Diehn-Bitt who embraced both the role of the modern woman and the “natural” maternal role as an artist.[11] In the work of Otto Dix there is evidence of a different kind of war that is seen throughout his oeuvre beyond the wartime trenches, that of a battle of the sexes, with his brutal characterizations and disfigurement of the German female citizen.[12]Another aspect of gender anxiety becomes apparent in the prevalence of the “Third Sex” in popular culture and imagery, as coined by Magnus Hirschfield.[13] Hirschfield was a champion of gay rights during the Weimar period.[14] The idea of the “Third Sex” is epitomized in the work of Christian Schad’s Court St. Genois d’Anneeacourt (circa 1930), which portrays the “new woman,” the “bourgeois,” and the “transvestite” altogether yet seemingly separate – a new, yet disparate reality. New Objectivity brought about more than just the idea of gender roles, and was more generally focused on the representation of the individual, depicted as alone or detached from others. The individual, with its inherent loneliness and self-reflection, is a pervasive feature of postwar Germany, where psychological distress became a norm. George Grosz and Max Beckmann both epitomized the portrayal of the individual in their artwork, and their works can be seen as progressing in style throughout their lives. George Grosz’s early work was largely inspired by the Italian Futurists, and his style from this period is known for its boldness[15], and the inclusion of satire[16]. After WWI, in which Grosz served military service, Grosz’s style developed a certain hatred towards society, which was a direct reflection of Grosz’s psychological core. Grosz was mentally broken, a natural effect of war.[17] Dadaism is an artistic realm in which Grosz was entrapped during his early years, and was a movement that focused on criticizing high society.[18] Grosz did not stick to Dadaism for long, and in 1923, he developed a traditional style influenced by the German Masters that he respected. New Objectivity became Grosz’s new obsession.[19] The individuals portrayed in the paintings are overtly real, with the heightened drama of unknown light sources, alluding to their psychological cores. Grosz’s late stage was inspired by his stay in America. His style became even more realistic, seeming to be a degradation to a more classical affiliation. Max Beckmann portrayed the individual through self-portraits. He was primarily concerned with the concepts of self and identity.[20] His early work was expressionistic, but was short lived. WWI caused an impact on him, much like Grosz.[21] Beckmann depicted the bourgeois in society with a biting hatred, seen through the indifferent expressions on the faces of the individuals. Beckmann’s late work is characterized by the use of brighter colors, and a rather benign portrayal of individuals. No longer did the characters have intentionally distant facial expressions, but instead were representative of an emotionally absent connotation. Circus subject matter became an indelible part of Beckmann’s work, and alludes to the idea of role-play, a conviction that the artist held throughout his career. The New Objectivists portrayed society as it was, leaving nothing to the imagination. This is evidenced by the true representations of war veterans, women, individuals, and industry. Specific artists worked in the movement, and much of their work was influenced by the ramifications after WWI. Although the movement seems particularly varied in terms of subject matter and medium, it can be looked at holistically through portrayals of societal norms. [1] Eva Karcher, Otto Dix, (New York: Taschen, 2002), 9. [2] Ibid., 12.[3] Matthias Eberle, Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006), 23.[4] Ian Buruma, Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006), 18.[5] Carl Einstein, “Otto Dix,” Das Kunstblatt 7, no. 3 (1923): 97.[6] Claudia Bohn-Spector, In Focus August Sander (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000), 8.[7] Jurgen Wilde and Weski, , Albert Renger-Patzsch, Photographer of Objectivity (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1998), 7. [8] Anita Grossmann, Reforming Sex: The German Movement for Birth Control and Abortion Reform, 1920-1950 (New York: Oxford Press, 1995), 5.[9] Ibid., 5.[10] Masha Meskimmon, We Weren’t Modern Enough: Women Artists and the Limits of German Modernism (CA, University of California Press, 1999), 178-90.[11] Ibid., 235.[12] Maria Tatar, Lustmord: Sexual Murder in Weimar Germany (New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1995), 68-69.[13] Anita Grossmann, Reforming Sex, 16.[14] Ibid.,16.[15] Max Beckmann, “Letters to a Woman Painter,” College Art Journal 9, no. 1 (1949): 39-43.[16] George Grosz, A Little Yes and a Big No: The Autobiography of George Grosz (New York: The Dial Press, 1946): 111, 122.[17] Royal Academy of Arts, The Berlin of George Grosz: Drawings, Watercolors and Prints 1912-1930 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997): 5-6. [18] Ibid., 8-9.[19] Ibid., 14. [20] Reinhard Spiedler, Max Beckmann (Köln: Taschen, 2002): 7.[21] Ibid., 25.